The Healing Arts

While at the supermarket, the April 26 Newsweek cover story caught my eye: “Treating Back Pain: The New Debate Over an Affliction Shared by 65 Million Americans.” Journalist Claudia Kalb reports that back pain is now the number two reason for doctor visits and costs $100 billion annually in medical bills, disability, and lost work productivity in the United States. The focus of the article is that medical doctors are seeking nonsurgical treatment for back pain and embracing a multidisciplinary approach to care.

Kalb reported that in the United States, spinal fusion surgery increased 77% between 1996 and 2001. But Richard Deyo, DC, and two colleagues, who published a paper in the February issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, posited that “there are insufficient data to justify treating disc degeneration with spinal fusion.”

Now, Kalb writes that more and more Americans are turning to complementary and alternative therapies instead, chiropractic in particular. One drawback that Kalb mentions is the lack of data on its long-term effects. When asked in a live Web discussion about the Newsweek article (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4767143/) why chiropractic is not used more often, Kalb responded that it is now being used more because of patient demand. As a result, there is a new study of more than 600 patients to see chiropractic’s effectiveness on back pain.

Donald Krippendorf, DC, president of the American Chiropractic Association, responded to Newsweek with a letter to the editor: “While Kalb correctly points out that chiropractic care is the most popular nonsurgical option for treating back pain and that many patients find relief thanks to chiropractic care, I would like to correct her assertion that there is a lack of data on the long-term effectiveness of chiropractic.” In Krippendorf’s letter, he cited two studies as examples of research about the efficacy of chiropractic care for back pain.

The Newsweek story is definitely a step in the right direction for the chiropractic profession. With this current media attention, previous studies and research will be brought to the public’s attention. Also, perhaps more funding will be made available for new studies.

But while reading the article. one quote caught my eye: “Like a temperamental sports car, the human spine is beautifully designed but maddeningly unreliable.” Why is there always a comparison between the human body and machinery? The “gold standard” of research does not take into account the mental, emotional, and spiritual. This would be fine if only physical nature defined humankind. There is a reason why the practice of medicine used to be called the healing arts. These “artists” took into account all the components of the body to aid in ridding dis-ease as chiropractic does.

After many of you read the Newsweek article, a part of you will be encouraged and another part will want to cry out in frustration, “This is what we have been saying for more than 100 years!”

Chiropractic has never wavered from the art and philosophy of healing, even with the extreme persecution it suffered during its early days. For many patients, scientific research is not necessary, because the benefits received from chiropractic care are evidence enough.

Miwon Seo
mseo@medpubs.com